BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The legislative sausage making begins
today on one of the most contentious issues facing the nation: what to do about
the country's broken immigration system and specifically how to deal with an
estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States?

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee begins work today on the
so-called "Gang of Eight" bill. The legislation, developed by four Democratic
and four Republican senators, would overhaul the nation's immigration system in
a number of ways including tightening security along the border, revamping the
legal immigration system and by providing a path to citizenship for
undocumented immigrants.

The bill has drawn significant support from Democrats,
businesses and from some Republicans seeking to create inroads to Hispanics, a
growing and increasingly important part of the electorate and one where many
see the GOP as hostile to them.

But it is also true the bill has created a rift inside the
Republican Party as well where many Republicans strongly oppose the proposed
overhaul. The man who has emerged as the leader of the opposition to the bill,
and also one of the toughest critics of fellow Republicans supporting it, is
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a senior member of the judiciary committee.

The Los
Angeles Times late Wednesday night posted this story about the beginning of
today's work on the bill and zeroed in on Sessions' role in attempting to
derail it.